Office Etiquette....Email Extravaganza...

Most of us rely heavily upon email in our day to day lives, especially in the workplace. After I got a particularly hilarious email today from someone who I have never even met at my P.O.E, it became clear to me that I need to post about proper email etiquette. So, here we go:

1. Overly Affectionate Interactions: If you've never met the person (or even if you have, seeing as though we are in a work environment), let's not compose emails utilizing the following format:

From: Cool Coworker
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 8:59 AM
To: KC Jones
Subject: RE: P6 POD

Hugs

Thanks for adding me to the distribution too…

_____________________________________________
From: KC Jones
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 8:57 AM
To: Cool Coworker
Subject: P6 POD

Here you go…

  << File: New Format Detail POD P6 2011.xlsx >> 

Yup, that's right, it says "hugs"!! How awesome is that? Now, I was laughing so hard when I saw this response and I was actually happy because I love awesome people, but a lot of people in the workplace don't feel the same way about this sort of stuff. What better way to start the day than by receiving virtual hugs from a 'co-worker' you don't even know? 

2. Email Signatures: There is NOTHING more infuriating than getting an email from someone that contains a signature that is basically a copy of their resume. If you've ever had this happen, I'm sure you'll agree that the people who do it are those who are 'so important' and 'so busy' (but only in their OWN minds). Keep it short and sweet---your name, department, and phone number are more than enough. I can DEAL with the company name and fax number when they appear, but I will NEVER be able to handle all of the titles listed, your job title, a link to the company's website and/or your cell phone number. Seriously. Get a life. You work in a cube or office, you aren't saving lives. Congrats on your MBA, CPA, or CMA degree---very proud of you and yes, you should be proud of yourself, but in reality, no one cares and, like I said, the people who do it are self-absorbed and pompous anyway.

3. Out of Office Replies: If you're out of the office, it's totally cool--you should be able to enjoy vacation time, etc. However, you do not NOT need to provide a miniature company directory in your absence. Simply stating that you are out of the office and giving your return date and one or two people MOST to contact in your absence is MORE than enough. Again, seems like some people (the same people who violate rule #2), feel the need to ramble on endlessly and provide lists with up to 7 or 8 people sometimes! What?! Again, nothing in Corporate America, especially when you are working for a RETAIL company is THAT urgent.  Another point on this topic, please do not refer to yourself in the third person. Here's a classic example from my P.O.E:

-----Original Message-----

From: Supercool Steve

Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 1:50 PM

To: KC Jones

Subject: Out of Office AutoReply:

Supercool Steve is working out of the Belgium offices for the period 6/18 - 6/27, 2008. 

If you are an associate with questions about benefits or policies, please call the HR Help Desk at 3-6499, or e-mail them.

IS associates, please contact Rich M. at 3-4101, or e-mail him.

If your e-mail is for other reasons, please leave Supercool Steve your message - he'll get back to you as soon as he is able - likely during the first week of July.

Thanks, and take good care!

4. Sense of Urgency:  Please refrain from marking all emails as 'urgent' or 'important' or whatever other indicator icon your email system allows you to do. If you are continuously sending me emails marked as 'high importance', you will eventually become my lowest priority because you are clearly insane. Also, I work in accounting, so as long as the entries/accruals/etc are booked and posted by our month end date, everything will be okay, so the example I will paste in below was completely unnecessary: 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jumpy Jackie
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 12:19 PM
To: KC Jones
Subject: URGENT ACCURAL NEEDED
Importance: High

KC Jones,

Can you make an accrual for the attached upload file.  It will not get in for P11 so I need to accrue for the entries in P11 and then immediately reverse in P12.

Jackie 

 

5. Follow Up: If you send an email, allow the recipient to have an adequate amount of time to respond to you. If you send an email at 2 pm, another email or phone calls at 2:30 pm is completely out of line. We have a 24 hour rule at my P.O.E, and while I typically get back to people far more quickly than that, it's nice to have that window on an extremely busy day. If you bother me with back to back emails, I'm going to be less likely to take you seriously in the future.

6. Proofreading: When you were in school, you wouldn't have passed in a paper without proofreading it first, right? Well, the same rule applies in regards to work emails. It takes two seconds to make sure you don't end up looking like a fool. This is a double edged sword for me though---because I thoroughly enjoy reading a funny email with missing words, extra words, and other nonsensical elements. However, we are 'professionals' here, so we should be checking this stuff. Here's a ridiculously hilarious email that was forwarded my way by a really good friend of mine at work. We still have no idea what this was all about:

From:

Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 2:51 PM
To: KC Jones
Subject: What???? This is an exerpt from an e-mail I just got

The reserve account that we booking initially ( 580516) when the disaster happen, looks like you are the owner, that’s why Ed asked me to include you in the meeting.

Clearly, there are a million other points I could make, but I think I've touched upon the most frequent offenses that I see on a daily basis. Happy emailing!

-KC Jones